End Of Our Worlds? Not today Chapter 10
#10 of EOOW? NT
The group arrives at End Of Sea and find themselves on the teleporter's platform which is located on a seashore near the beach. The area is fully in night time, the moon is the only source of light.
"This is the place? It's darker than I thought it would be." Oswald comments looking at the landscape. Ortensia couldn't tell if he was sarcastic or worried.
"This is scary though, it does looks like this place was abandoned centuries ago, I would go as far as millenniums. Look at this place, it's like this place does not have any living animals around here. It's dead here." Goofy muses, looking for a book in his backpack.
"Yeah, do you think because this place has been abandoned the day never came back? It looks like day never rose here." Donald questions.
"You might be right Donald." Goofy responds. "The only thing I can see from this book is that it used to be sunny and beautiful here but since the gate was build here to seal those monsters, everybody left. But it's interesting is that the gate itself has a nasty aura, even nature itself fled from that aura."
"This means...those thorns, this sea is not from nature itself?" Oswald wanders.
"No, it is, but the aura poisoned and transformed the whole entire land." Goofy concludes. "Scary how magic can be destructive."
"Yeah...let's move out guys." Ortensia leads the way in the land on the path toward the camps.
The group hikes for a good two hours in the dark forest. The whole place looks and feels dead and it is accentuated by the cold but smooth glow of the moon; adding or giving a ghost-like atmosphere in to the forest.
"This is disturbing. I can only hear my footsteps in this forest. A freaking forest for heaven's sake, this is not settling well with me." Donald mumbles quietly to Goofy.
"Well, yeah and it does not help that it's a lost land either. Who knows what grew under the gate's influence? I don't really want to know to be honest." Goofy whispers back.
The group arrives at the other side of the forest and sees dark plains devoid of life...or is it really? Behind some plains, light emerges from behind further plains and chatters can be faintly heard.
"Well, looks like we are here...finally. Let's get some information and get ready to get nasty." Oswald suggests, half joking.
"Oh you and your double meaning sentences." Ortensia sigh.
And with that, the group walks to the camps.
The camp is a fusion of the gunners' camp, the magicians' camp and the swordsmen's camp which can be seen by the colors of the tent in their respective order, silver, dark blue and dark red. The main path is splitting the camp in two. Some people are talking around, some are training and some are taking care of their weapons.
"Look at that, I thought they would be strict and all but they mix around. Good, the schools need to socialize more together." Ortensia smiles. "Alright, let's find a general or someone, get information and leave."
"What? You don't want to be part of this army. Look around, it is pretty sweet here." Donald protests. "It would be awesome."
"Yeah I guess but I think it would be cool to be sort of a free group you know. We can move freely and take care of some potential threat for them. We don't know what's waiting for us besides what we already know. Besides, I do not think you want to smell blood, feet and mud the whole time in this camp, would you?" Ortensia finishes.
"Never mind my idea. I like that." Donald grins sheepishly.
"You have been quiet since we left Mickey, come on buddy, say something." Goofy pats the mouse's back.
"Heh, sorry. I'm thinking about a lot of things, especially the gate. Sealing the gate won't be easy feat but I know we can do it. I do agree with Ortensia though. Being an independent group is fitting...for us at least." Mickey gently smiles.
The group is walking through the camp, following the main path and talking about plans and everything they can potentially investigate for the army when Ortensia spots someone she knows; an old friend with her gang.
"Daisy!" She shouts, waving her hands to her friend hoping she would recognize her and sure enough, she comes running to her.
"Ortensia, holy hell, it's you I can't believe it!" Daisy screams while hugging her friend. "It's been so long since we saw each other. How are you doing? Mmm don't answer, you look radiant even if it's dark. Hello there Oswald, long time no see."
"Hehe you are looking great as well. So, getting ready for some nasty battles?"
"Yeah, this is going to be interesting. Everybody is excited and on edge right now. We never fought in a such upscaled battle before, my heart is beating so fast every time I think about that. Hey you got some friends with you?"
"My name is Goofy. Please to meet you." The dog shake hands steadily.
"And I am Donald." The duck introduces himself, shacking Daisy's hand.
"The pleasure is all mine. Nice to meet you, I'm Daisy and wait a second." Daisy turns around and waves her friends to come over. "My friends who are also in my squad: Minnie and Sylvia." They all shake hands, re-introducing themselves.
"Hey, hold on, where is Mickey?" Oswald looks around and spots his little brother talking with another young mage. The youngster looks thrilled and even excited to be talking to Mickey. "There he is. Looks like he is busy already." He waves to his brother, catching his attention and motions him to come.
"Wait a minute...Mickey? The one who was stuck in a crystal or something?" Daisy asks confuse to what she just heard.
"Yeah, that Mickey and how the hell do you know about that?" Ortensia asks, surprised.
"Oh come on, this story is well known you know, everybody knows about him but I must say I've never thought I would be meeting him face to face." Daisy responds, gathering her senses again.
"Well you will meet him and probably see him even more because he's Oswald's little brother." Ortensia grins.
"You are kidding!? This is a joke, right?"
"No, it's not a joke, ask him for yourself." Goofy giggles.
"Ask me about what?" Mickey asks suddenly making everyone almost jump out of their skin.
"Holy crap! Mickey DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN!" Donald yells, holding his chest.
"hehehehe sorry about that Donald, I though you guys knew I was beside you. Anyway, greetings, my name is Michael but everyone calls me Mickey." He smiles.
"Well hello Mickey, we heard a lot about you, you know? You are quite someone in Twilight Town and in the schools." Daisy comments making Mickey a little bit uneasy.
"Heh well thank you but if you could not say anything about me being here, it would be great." Mickey scratches his head.
"I won't, I promise. So, is it true that you are Oswald's little brother?" Minnie asks.
"Yeah, this is true. Why?" The mouse slightly his head in confusion.
"Oh nothing, hehehe." Daisy jumps in. "That's awesome though, happy to meet you. Ortensia and I are from way back to our last year of academy. We met there and we became friends really quickly and when we parted ways, we promised to meet again. Promise has been kept it seems. Anyway, so you guys are joining the army?"
"Well we aren't really. We will fight as well but as an independent squad. We have some stuffs we want to investigate as well." Oswald explains.
"Oh I see, cool. You should go look for Ansem. He is the head chief of the whole camp. He will be happy to see you guys, I'm sure. Apparently, master Yen Sid will come as well soon, since Mickey is here, I guess he will be here very soon. And I must say that your group is interesting, four gunner and one mage..."
"and swordsman." Mickey finishes for her as he materializes his dual swords. "I was a swordsman before I discovered the realm of arcane, magic and enchantment. Even if I changed my 'profession', I still trained as I as I could with a sword and I created my own fighting technics fusing magic and blades." He informs with a 'as a matter of fact' tone in his voice.
"Nice blades, may I try one?" Minnie asks.
"Yeah, try it." He gives a blade to Minnie and smiles when the she almost drops the blade because of the weight.
"How the hell do you manage to move and control those? They are heavy as hell!" She manages to give a few sweeps. She then looks at Mickey and only then notices his wings. 'I wonder how high he can fly with those wings; they are huge and particular. I've never seen someone with wings before...well, non-magical wings.' She thought, a smile slowly creeping on her face.
"training, just pure training." Mickey answers.
"Alright, Ortensia is going to see Ansem and I'm going with her. Let's split and chill for a bit. I'll look for you once we are done." Oswald says before walking away with his mate.
"Sounds good to me." Donald comments. "Hey Daisy, I was wondering if you want to train a bit? I think I might be a little bit rusty."
"Sure thing." Daisy answers before walking off with Donald.
"Goofy, do you read books? You look like someone who likes to know things as much as possible. I'm writing a book about this place and my experience here and I think it would be awesome if you can add your input in it." Sylvia asks with a smile.
"I love reading. Let's do this." Goofy answers happily before following Sylvia.
"Annnnd two bookworms have found each other." Mickey grins, watching the duo walk away to their occupations.
"Well I have a question for you as well." Minnie smiles. "Well several questions for you actually. How does it feel to have wings and fly? Must be very interesting and also, can you show me some of your magic spells? I've always wanted to see someone cast a spell."
"I sure can, let's go somewhere quiet and far enough from the camp though. I do not want to bring too much attention on myself here. Maybe grab what you need to take and we can go."
"I'm already ready. We can go now."
"Good, hold on to me then, we will fly." Mickey extends his wings and Minnie holds on tightly to Mickey before he takes off. Minnie is slightly scared from the sudden take off and people can be heard saying stuffs along the lines of 'dude, who is this guy?' or 'hey, this guy has wings?'. Mickey flies out to a place a bit out of the camp. He is so concentrate on his flying that he does not see Minnie blushing slightly.
'This is great, this is amazing. This feeling, I've never felt that before and who is he? I'm going to know more about him...I...have to...he is quite handsome.' She thought silently. 'I need to know him more.'
Little did she know, she isn't the only one being struck by the lightning of love.